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Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. To that purpose, the LEaders Accelerating Development (LEAD) Program of the Deshpande Foundation was born. LEAD develops innovative and entrepreneurial thinking within college students by exposing them to social issues, encouraging them to volunteer their time and effort into the community, and igniting their latent talent to come up with creative solutions. Through this unique platform provided by LEAD, students are gaining the skills and confidence needed to transform their visions into realities. Armed with guidance, exposure, networking opportunities, financial assistance, and encouragement from LEAD, students from throughout 75 colleges and 14 districts are unleashing their leadership potential to go on inspiring and improving those around them.

The 6th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 6th February with Mr. Ravindranath Gumaste, Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., cutting the ceremonial ribbon that let the hundreds of attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests, into the event grounds.

On 24th January, 107 promising students from across Karnataka and neighbouring states descended upon the VTU campus in Belagavi to mark the kick-off of the 5th annual LEAD Prayana. These students, along with 32 beginning their journey on the same day in Nizamabad, were selected from a pool of almost 500 applicants. LEAD Prayana, which began in 2012 with just 63 students, is an annual leadership journey that takes almost 150 passionate students between the ages of 18-26 throughout India on a 14-day tour across Karnataka...

I am passionate about science, especially physics. My affair with Science started during my childhood and it deepened in my high school when I started participating in Science exhibitions with my models. During Pre University Education, I built the Levitation Train with few of my friends and grabbed prizes at several competitions. “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku was a book that exposed me further to the vastness of the science and motivated me to start a science group called “Blackbody Science Group (Which Absorbs All Wavelength of Intuitive Minds)”. This group engages in creating interest about science among government and physically disabled school children.

People tend
to use electricity in their homes even during the daytime, because it can be
very dark in their rooms. Yuvaraj D Patil from VSM Institute of Technology in
Nipani came up with the innovative idea to reduce electricity use during the
day using sunlight. Having intention to make electricity bill smaller for
economically challenged people, Yuvaraj introduced a way to save electricity
using empty plastic bottles. Knowing that 90% of houses in Nitawade have roofs,
it was easy for Yuvaraj and his team Neha and Chinnari to attach empty bottles
to the roof to produce light for up to 12 hours. Young LEaders started to
implement their project on 7 January 2015 and finished on 9 January 2015. For
this project Yuvaraj took an empty plastic bottle and filled it with water.
After that, Yavaraj and his team inserted the bottle between the bricks of the
roof, so that one half of the bottle was outside facing the Sun. According to
Yuvaraj, the bottle will absorb sun rays and produce light like a small voltage
bulb. This is how the other part of the bottle can lighten up the whole room. Using
this simple method that everybody can repeat, now people can do their work even
in a dark room. Although it was difficult to cut empty bottles and make them
proper size, Yuvaraj and his team were able to accomplish the task. With the
small fund of 250 rupees, Yuvaraj was able to help many people save not only
their money, but also decrease electricity use. The most useful thing Yuvaraj
and his team have learned is that small mechanisms can lead to great
achievements.